Your Multiverse.

We tend to think of sports and geeks being a little bit like chalk and cheese; oil and water. But like any endeavour in life, there are certain exceptions to that rule. In fact, there are some sports that positively thrill the geek in all of us. Here are just a few examples.

Segway Polo

Geeks across the land rejoiced when the Segway came out a few years back. It was the Back To The Future hoverboard substitute we had all been waiting for. But Segways never caught on nationally, meaning that they stayed well within the purview of geeks and nerds everywhere.

When segwaying was transformed into Segway-loving geeks everywhere rejoiced. Finally, there was a high-tech version of the sport that didn't involve large horses. Segways can hit speeds of 20 mph, and the sport itself has five players on each team, meaning that the chances of ending up in a pile up are high.

Geocaching

The idea of geocaching is to find a small, waterproof container containing goodies. Geocachers have to have their wits about them and understand the intricacies of GPS technology to find the location of the cache and then extract the treasure. It’s not so much a sport in reality and more an excuse for geeks to play around with GPS systems.

Table Squash

Just playing regular table tennis would be too simple for geeks. And so they've come up with a bunch of news ways of playing the game including table tennis basketball and around the world ping pong.

But perhaps the most popular right now is the blending of table tennis with squash. Here two participants place the table up against the wall and bounce shots off the wall to try to outsmart the other player. Some players even practice against table tennis robots to hone their skills.

Extreme Ironing

Extreme ironing is precisely what it sounds like. Competitors take their ironing boards on their extreme sports, be it skydiving, snowboarding or freefalling, and try to perform their ironing at the same time. Apparently, that means taking an ironing board with them but how effective it is when they’ve finished is anyone’s guess. Probably not all that effective if you ask most people.

Zorbing

Have you ever wanted to climb into a giant plastic ball, feel like you’re caught in Shelob’s lair and roll down the ride of a hill? Well, if you have, then zorbing might be the sport for you. Essentially, you put yourself in the human equivalent of a hamster ball and roll down a hill. The balls are around 3 meters in diameter and riders sit inside a small 2-metre ball on the interior. The gap between them is supposed to absorb all of the bumps on the way down, but it sometimes doesn’t work. (Oh well).

Chess Boxing

We all know that chess is a violent game which ends in the losing player swiping the board onto the floor and storming off. Now that violent impulse has been enshrined in the sport of chess boxing. You lose, you punch the other player. Simple.

More on Geekweek

Comments

Sign in to comment with your TypePad, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo or OpenID.

Sports That Will Arouse Your Inner Geek!

We tend to think of sports and geeks being a little bit like chalk and cheese; oil and water. But like any endeavour in life, there are certain exceptions to that rule. In fact, there are some sports that positively thrill the geek in all of us. Here are just a few examples.

Segway Polo

Geeks across the land rejoiced when the Segway came out a few years back. It was the Back To The Future hoverboard substitute we had all been waiting for. But Segways never caught on nationally, meaning that they stayed well within the purview of geeks and nerds everywhere.

When segwaying was transformed into Segway-loving geeks everywhere rejoiced. Finally, there was a high-tech version of the sport that didn't involve large horses. Segways can hit speeds of 20 mph, and the sport itself has five players on each team, meaning that the chances of ending up in a pile up are high.

Geocaching

The idea of geocaching is to find a small, waterproof container containing goodies. Geocachers have to have their wits about them and understand the intricacies of GPS technology to find the location of the cache and then extract the treasure. It’s not so much a sport in reality and more an excuse for geeks to play around with GPS systems.

Table Squash

Just playing regular table tennis would be too simple for geeks. And so they've come up with a bunch of news ways of playing the game including table tennis basketball and around the world ping pong.

But perhaps the most popular right now is the blending of table tennis with squash. Here two participants place the table up against the wall and bounce shots off the wall to try to outsmart the other player. Some players even practice against table tennis robots to hone their skills.

Extreme Ironing

Extreme ironing is precisely what it sounds like. Competitors take their ironing boards on their extreme sports, be it skydiving, snowboarding or freefalling, and try to perform their ironing at the same time. Apparently, that means taking an ironing board with them but how effective it is when they’ve finished is anyone’s guess. Probably not all that effective if you ask most people.

Zorbing

Have you ever wanted to climb into a giant plastic ball, feel like you’re caught in Shelob’s lair and roll down the ride of a hill? Well, if you have, then zorbing might be the sport for you. Essentially, you put yourself in the human equivalent of a hamster ball and roll down a hill. The balls are around 3 meters in diameter and riders sit inside a small 2-metre ball on the interior. The gap between them is supposed to absorb all of the bumps on the way down, but it sometimes doesn’t work. (Oh well).

Chess Boxing

We all know that chess is a violent game which ends in the losing player swiping the board onto the floor and storming off. Now that violent impulse has been enshrined in the sport of chess boxing. You lose, you punch the other player. Simple.